is a Japanese

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series co-produced by the animation studios

Bones A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, an ...

and

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

. Licensed by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

and directed by Atsushi Takahashi, the series premiered on March 25, 2021 on Netflix in Japan, and on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

and other channels on April 1 to June 24, 2021.

Plot

The setting is Nigashio City,

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...

in the year 2030. Engineer Yun Arikawa of the local "do-it-all" shop Otaki Factory investigates happenings in a Western-style house, long thought abandoned. Mei Kamino, a graduate student studying imaginary creatures, investigates mysterious signals received from Misakioku, the former Tsuguno district's administrative building. These two strangers, visiting completely different places as part of completely different investigations, both hear the same song. As they become united, they are led into a battle beyond imagination involving the whole world. ''Godzilla Singular Point'' features a brand new staff and original story which depicts the young geniuses as they take on this unprecedented threat to the universe with their companions.

Characters

Production

On October 6, 2020,

Toho Animation is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...

and Netflix announced plans for an anime ''Godzilla'' series, titled ''Godzilla Singular Point'', it aired from April 1 to June 24, 2021 on

and other channels. Production for the show is by

in partnership with

, blending hand-drawn and computer animation styles respectively. Atsushi Takahashi served as the director with scripts by

Toh EnJoe (born September 15, 1972) is a Japanese author. Most of his works are literary fiction or speculative fiction. Biography EnJoe was born on 1972 in Sapporo. He graduated from the physics department of Tohoku University, then went on to the gradua ...

, and music composed by

Kan Sawada (born 9 April 1968) is a Japanese composer and arranger. His desire to be a composer came from listening to Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonies in junior high school. Sawada studied composition and orchestration at Tokyo College of Music. He won ...

. Character design was handled by ''

Blue Exorcist is a Japanese dark fantasy manga series written and illustrated by Kazue Kato. The story revolves around Rin Okumura, a teenager who discovers he and his twin brother Yukio are the sons of Satan, born from a human woman, and he is the inhe ...

'' manga creator

Kazue Kato is a Japanese manga artist. She debuted in 2000 with a one-shot in '' Akamaru Jump'' before publishing a full series in '' Monthly Shōnen Sirius''. Following that series completion, she launched ''Blue Exorcist'' in ''Jump Square''. Biography ...

, with former

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It is best known for its animated feature films, and ha ...

animator Eiji Yamamori designing the monsters. The series' opening theme, "in case...", is performed by

BiSH is a Japanese alternative idol girl group that was founded in 2015 by their manager Junnosuke Watanabe. The group was conceived as a successor to BiS, an idol group managed by Watanabe that disbanded in 2014. History Bish was initially ann ...

, while

Polkadot Stingray is a Japanese rock band from Fukuoka, Japan signed under Universal Sigma. The band's members consist of Shizuku (guitar and vocals), Harushi Ejima (guitar), Yuki Uemura (bass), and Kazuma Mitsuyasu (drums). History 2014–2016: Indies era, ...

performed the ending theme song . There is also the recurring insert theme "ALAPU UPALA", performed by Indian-American singer Annette Philip, which is utilized in the storyline as a

deus ex machina ''Deus ex machina'' ( , ; plural: ''dei ex machina''; English "god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. Its function ...

. The series debuted earlier on Netflix in Japan on March 25, 2021, which was followed by a global release on June 24, 2021.

Episode list

Marketing

First images and poster art were released on October 26, 2020 during Netflix's Anime Festival, with the streaming service releasing a teaser trailer later that same day. The teaser revealed that the series would air in April 2021 and would feature monsters and characters from the

Shōwa era The was the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Shōwa ( Hirohito) from December 25, 1926, until his death on January 7, 1989. It was preceded by the Taishō era. The pre-1945 and post-war Shōwa periods are almos ...

of the ''Godzilla'' franchise, such as

Rodan is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', which first appeared as the title character in Ishirō Honda's 1956 film ''Rodan'', produced and distributed by Toho. Following its debut standalone appearance, Rodan went on to be featured in numerous ent ...

Anguirus is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', which first appeared in ''Godzilla Raids Again'' (1955), the second film in the ''Godzilla'' franchise. Anguirus is the first monster to be shown engaging in combat with Godzilla in a film. Since then, the ...

Jet Jaguar is a 1973 Japanese ''kaiju'' film directed by Jun Fukuda, written by Fukuda and Shinichi Sekizawa, and produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka, with special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano. Distributed by Toho and produced under their effects subsidiary Toho–E ...

Manda Manda may refer to: Places * Kafr Manda, Arab town in the Lower Galilee * Manda Upazila, an upazila in the Division of Rajshahi, Bangladesh * Manda, Kale, a village in Burma * Manda, Guinea, a town in the Labé Region * Manda, Jammu, India, a vil ...

, and what initially appeared to be

Titanosaurus ''Titanosaurus'' (; ) is a dubious genus of sauropod dinosaurs, first described by Richard Lydekker in 1877.R. Lydekker. (1877). Notices of new and other Vertebrata from Indian Tertiary and Secondary rocks. ''Records of the Geological Survey of I ...

and Gabara --the latter two later being revealed as new kaiju Godzilla Aquatilis and Salunga. On October 12, 2020, it was announced that Takahashi, EnJoe, Bones producer Naoki Amano, Orange producer Jiro Ando, and

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...

producer Takashi Yoshizawa would all appear in a panel during the ''Godzilla Fest Online 2020'' event on November 3, 2020. On February 12, 2021, the full design of Godzilla was revealed, illustrated by Eiji Yamamori and colored by Yūji Kaneko. ''Godzilla Singular Point'' received a DVD/Blu-ray release in Japan in three separate volumes: the first volume was released on August 18, 2021, with the other two on September 22 and October 20. The show also received

Bandai is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and Richmond ...

soft vinyl action figures as part of the ''Movie Monster'' series toyline. The first to be revealed was of Jet Jaguar and Godzilla in his Ultima form on March 6, 2021 in Japan. These two were later followed up by another vinyl figure of Godzilla in his Aquatilis form on April 17. Vinyl figures of Angurius and Manda were released on April 24. A vinyl figure of Godzilla in his Amphibia form to follow on May 15, and his Terrestris form one week later on May 22.

Reception

Critical reception

Accolades

''Godzilla Singular Point'' won VFX-Japan Awards' 2022 "Excellence" and "Best" awards in the Television/Distribution Program Anime CG Category. It was also nominated for the 42nd

Nihon SF Taisho Award The is a Japanese science fiction award. It has been compared to the Nebula Award as it is given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan or SFWJ. The Grand Prize is selected from not only Science Fiction novels, but also various SF mo ...

. The anime series was awarded the 53rd

Seiun Award The is a Japanese speculative fiction award given each year for the best science fiction works and achievements during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by , the awards are given at the annual Nihon SF Taikai, Japan Science Fict ...

in the Best Media category in 2022.

References

External links

*
''Godzilla Singular Point''
at the official ''Godzilla'' website by Toho Co., Ltd. * * * {{Seiun Award - Best Media 2021 anime television series debuts Bones (studio) Godzilla television series Netflix original anime Orange (animation studio) Tokyo MX original programming Action anime and manga Science fiction anime and manga Television series set in 2030 Television shows set in Kolkata Television shows set in London Toho Animation